Archive for the 'Lineups' Tag Under 'Angels' Category

The Angels return home on Thursday from their six-game road trip a different team as they open a four-game series with the Houston Astros.

The obvious changes are in the bullpen, where the Angels acquired relievers Jason Grilli and Rich Hill and dealt former closer Ernesto Frieri in the last week.

But a couple important pieces in the Angels lineup also hope to have turned a corner during the Angels' 3-3 trip to Kansas City and Chicago. Josh Hamilton homered twice in Chicago after going 23 games without one and David Freese hit his first home run since April 27 on Wednesday, part of a 7-for-17 road trip.

"I think as the season goes on, this club is going to get better," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "I think we’re starting to see signs of that and we need it."

Hill gives the Angels a lefthanded reliever, something they lacked in the first half of the season when Nick Maronde was ineffective and Sean Burnett landed back on the disabled list.

"I wanted to pull the trigger on a couple of those pitches but I was frozen. He was dealing."

Abreu can tip his hat to Hernandez for Tuesday's 0-fer. But the veteran outfielder has just two hits in his past 27 at-bats (.074) and five in 45 at-bats with 18 strikeouts over his past 12 games. Tuesday's hat trick gave him the team lead in strikeouts (110).

So he gets the day off today against a left-hander. Angels manager Mike Scioscia said it was "a good day to give Bobby the day off" to combine it with the team's off day Thursday for a two-day break -- but Scioscia said he didn't see fatigue as the reason for Abreu's recent slide.

After two days of sitting around wondering about his future, Mike Napoli is back in the starting lineup tonight.

Lucky for him (and the rest of the Angels hitters), they get to face Mariners ace Felix Hernandez.

Hernandez is a Cy Young candidate hidden behind a bad team. At 10-10 for the season, Hernandez has a 2.47 ERA (second to Clay Buchholz in the AL), 192 strikeouts (second to Jered Weaver in the majors), 204 1/3 innings pitched (second to Roy Halladay) and a .225 opponents' batting average.

Hernandez has allowed just four runs in August -- only one in 30 innings over his past four starts.

And yet, Hernandez is 4-7 with a 4.34 ERA in 19 career starts against the Angels -- his lowest winning percentage and highest ERA against any opponent he has faced more than once.